Fluffy Butt Acres: Stories of our flock

[Grandma The Chicken]

I graduated a year early due to my AP classes, and went to college the very next semester. I excelled in college.

School tax: (as if we aren’t taxed enough already):View attachment 4259745

Tell them to go to school. Grandma did but she had no interest

Thanks! This is the first AP class I've taken, and boy is it hard. It's already bad enough that politics and government isn't my strong suit AT ALL, but my teacher can't teach at all either. She is the sweetest lady ever, but I only know a few people who are passing with a good grade, and they are geniuses.
I took honors biology last year, and I only got an A in it because of my teacher. She helped me out so much. If I had taken AP bio, I don't think I would've passed with an A. I took physical science two years ago... Not sure if that's the same as Physics, but I know that its similar. I got an 87, I think.
Science is my strong suit, so I've been taking the science class that the grade above me takes' for the past few years. (I know that my grammar in that sentence is horrible, so I apologize.)
Let me try to make it make sense. So, before I got into high school, I took a high school science class, so that I could get that credit out of the way. And then as a freshman, I took the 10th grade science class... so forth and so on. Also, I got both of my language classes out of the way in middle school too, which is nice.
Good luck in your classes!

Thanks. I have a lot I need to get done in Bio and English.

Oh, I was furious. My ag teacher is lucky that I control my temper around adults that aren't my parents, because I have a short fuse and that fuse practically exploded because of my fury.

I think I do the same thing. I might also have a short fuse.

 

[RoyalChick]

Someone Need to Take a Break

Aster has not stopped laying eggs. Even though these are the days with the shortest daylight of the year. I'm not a fan of this. I wish she would take a break.

I found this when I checked the nest box on a whim today.

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My little layer.
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Everyone except Tassels is on strike here. Tassels so rarely lays normally because she is usually broody so I confess I am enjoying her beautiful dark green eggs at the moment. She lays about 4 a week.
I suspect Geronimo will be the first to start laying among the Littles - she is quite red in the face and is very interested in nest boxes. She checks them out every day!

 

[notabitail]

No more ISA’s

Hi everyone. I am once again several weeks behind in reading. I know several people have had losses lately, my deepest sympathies to all of you. And now I have also had a loss. Buffy, the last of my five ISA’s passed late Sunday or early Monday.

She was 3.5 years old, and has had reproductive issues for about a year. I had drained her abdomen a few times. The first was many months ago, the last a few days ago. When I drained it that time I could feel a hard lump in her abdomen. She had also started having crop issues that seemed to indicate that things weren’t able to pass through as well. When I did her abdomen I also used a catheter to drain her crop, because when I went to pick her up dark fluid gushed from her mouth. At least she seemed to be a little more comfortable her last few days.

Once she was gone I did a partial necropsy, mainly just opening her abdomen a little to examine the hard lump. It turned out to be similar to a lash egg, which I assume was from advanced infection in her abdomen.

She and Crystal, who I lost several weeks ago, will be laid to rest together. I kept having the feeling that as soon as I buried Crystal, Buffy would go too. So decided to just wait and bury them together when the time came.

Fly high my dearest ones. At least you will now be reunited with Goldie, Sassy, and Hazel.

Buffy from a few months ago, with her last fluffy butt photo.
View attachment 4260189

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I always loved the patterning on her back feathers, that looked almost like lacing or pencilling.
View attachment 4260191

Memorial photo, and one of the material that wa in her abdomen (since I know some people appreciate things like this of a medical nature).

Spoiler: Buffy Memorial photo

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Spoiler: Abdominal material

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And I don’t think I ever posted pictures when Crystal passed.

Showing off her sunbathing pose
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Spoiler: Crystal memorial

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[Grandma The Chicken]

Someone Need to Take a Break

Aster has not stopped laying eggs. Even though these are the days with the shortest daylight of the year. I'm not a fan of this. I wish she would take a break.

I found this when I checked the nest box on a whim today.

View attachment 4260270

My little layer.
View attachment 4260271

I remember when I went to Bosnia in 2022 and returned after 1 month, I found (I think) 7 eggs in the same spot. Mind you, we had 3 laying hens at the time. Grandma wasn't laying at that time, she stopped a few years prior.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

No more ISA’s

Hi everyone. I am once again several weeks behind in reading. I know several people have had losses lately, my deepest sympathies to all of you. And now I have also had a loss. Buffy, the last of my five ISA’s passed late Sunday or early Monday.

She was 3.5 years old, and has had reproductive issues for about a year. I had drained her abdomen a few times. The first was many months ago, the last a few days ago. When I drained it that time I could feel a hard lump in her abdomen. She had also started having crop issues that seemed to indicate that things weren’t able to pass through as well. When I did her abdomen I also used a catheter to drain her crop, because when I went to pick her up dark fluid gushed from her mouth. At least she seemed to be a little more comfortable her last few days.

Once she was gone I did a partial necropsy, mainly just opening her abdomen a little to examine the hard lump. It turned out to be similar to a lash egg, which I assume was from advanced infection in her abdomen.

She and Crystal, who I lost several weeks ago, will be laid to rest together. I kept having the feeling that as soon as I buried Crystal, Buffy would go too. So decided to just wait and bury them together when the time came.

Fly high my dearest ones. At least you will now be reunited with Goldie, Sassy, and Hazel.

Buffy from a few months ago, with her last fluffy butt photo.
View attachment 4260189

View attachment 4260196

I always loved the patterning on her back feathers, that looked almost like lacing or pencilling.
View attachment 4260191

Memorial photo, and one of the material that wa in her abdomen (since I know some people appreciate things like this of a medical nature).

Spoiler: Buffy Memorial photo

View attachment 4260197

Spoiler: Abdominal material

View attachment 4260193

And I don’t think I ever posted pictures when Crystal passed.

Showing off her sunbathing pose
View attachment 4260190

Spoiler: Crystal memorial

View attachment 4260194

So sorry for your loss. You gave her as much comfort as anyone could. What troopers chickens are. Her feather pattern was indeed beautiful!

 

[featherhead007]

To be clear, beady eyes are permitted here.

Okay, but just this once!

 

[ChicoryBlue]

This has probably been answered, but wanted to approach this from the instructor's point of view. I teach Dual Credit Government and AP Macroeconomics. In the past I taught AP U.S. History and AP Government but switched to Dual Credit where I could.
AP stands for Advanced Placement. Students take a class with curriculum approved by the College Board - the same group that administers the SAT test. In May, the College Board administers AP tests in the states and internationally. Students receive scores on a scale of one to five, and universities give credit as they choose. It can be a very tough test, with an occasional essay question coming out of left field and preventing students from getting college credit after working hard and doing well all year.
Dual credit means the student is simultaneously enrolled in the high school class and the university class. The professor is an employee of both schools, but the university has control of the curriculum and requirements. There is not a giant make or break test at the end of the year, just the normal final exam.
Both classes really help cut down on the expense of college and both help high school students prepare for the rigor of a university. However, not every student needs to go to college, and that's fine. We need to quit pushing kids to borrow $100,000 or more when they would be perfectly happy in a trade or starting their own small business.
Sorry for the rant. I know very little about any science, so all the health care discussions about chickens go over my head.
Hang in there AP students!

Education is often approached as a science, isn’t it? I’m a child of the “Normal School” teacher-training movement in New York. You teach economics, isn’t that a science? A “dismal science” I’ve heard, lol, but a science!

Tax: Hazel and her very beady-eyed look, from a few years ago? Especially for @featherhead007 !
She’s currently having a flare up of MG bubbly eyes again, treating with terramycin now, which is helping.

 

[Labsandchickens8]

Education is often approached as a science, isn’t it? I’m a child of the “Normal School” teacher-training movement in New York. You teach economics, isn’t that a science? A “dismal science” I’ve heard, lol, but a science!

Tax: Hazel and her very beady-eyed look, from a few years ago? Especially for @featherhead007 !
She’s currently having a flare up of MG bubbly eyes again, treating with terramycin now, which is helping.
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It's a "social science" - the study of how people interact with all things financial. Done correctly, it involves logic and lots of word problems.
I love it, but I love chickens more. I have great admiration for those of you who treat your own chickens' illnesses. I have a lot to learn.
Tax: another type of white chicken for BY Bob. This is Mirabel the Big Bossy Bresse. She looks a little like a Leghorn to me, and might have common heritage, since they come from France. They have to have blue legs though, since they are red, white and blue for the colors of the French flag. They are also supposed to have great tasting meat but obviously I wouldn't know. I have threatened her life a couple of times because shes so mean to other chickens at times, but other than putting her in Chicken Reeducation camp for a couple of days, she runs the place.

 

[ChicoryBlue]

It's a "social science" - the study of how people interact with all things financial. Done correctly, it involves logic and lots of word problems.
I love it, but I love chickens more. I have great admiration for those of you who treat your own chickens' illnesses. I have a lot to learn.
Tax: another type of white chicken for BY Bob. This is Mirabel the Big Bossy Bresse. She looks a little like a Leghorn to me, and might have common heritage, since they come from France. They have to have blue legs though, since they are red, white and blue for the colors of the French flag. They are also supposed to have great tasting meat but obviously I wouldn't know. I have threatened her life a couple of times because shes so mean to other chickens at times, but other than putting her in Chicken Reeducation camp for a couple of days, she runs the place.

I don't know anything about Bresse chickens. Mirabel is a beauty! I like her full shape, with a nice tail. She's got a tinge of pink on those outer butt feathers in these pics, what's that?

 

[Labsandchickens8]

I don't know anything about Bresse chickens. Mirabel is a beauty! I like her full shape, with a nice tail. She's got a tinge of pink on those outer butt feathers in these pics, what's that?

That was a no peck spray I put on her when I cleaned up her behind. She had pin feathers coming in and was poopy also back there. I was afraid the other chickens would peck her. I should have known they wouldn't dare.
She seems to have settled down a bit. I don't see as much of what I would consider over the top behavior, like sitting on other chickens backs and pecking their heads. She does still clear the roost bar in both directions when she feels the need to assert herself.